Lion-Headed Goddess
Description
<p>The ancient Egyptians donated figures of their gods for use in temple rituals; smaller images served as amulets to ensure divine protection. Goddesses in particular were viewed as protective deities. From earliest times, Egyptians venerated a wide circle of feline-headed female deities, such as Sakhmet, Tefnut, Wadjet, and Bastet.<p /> <p />This small silver figure represents Wadjet. She is standing wearing a long female garment, amulets and bracelets. At the top of her head is a large erected uraeus (cobra serpent). The goddess holds a ritual instrument in front of her body with her left hand; it is a usekh-collar with a lioness-head (also called an aegis), which has a protective function.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/57.1421' rel='external'>Lion-Headed Goddess</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A small standing female figure with a lion head holds an inlaid or raised element near the chest, rendered in a silver-like metal finish.
The object shows a full-length, columnar standing figure with legs close together and a frontal, symmetrical pose. The head is topped by a stylized lion mane (lion-headed goddess type), with the lion’s face and muzzle clearly modeled. The eyes and facial features are incised/engraved, and the mane forms a rounded collar around the head and upper torso. The chest bears a secondary, smaller face or mask-like element centered below the lion’s chin area. The shoulders and arms are indicated with simple sculpted contours; the forearms extend down along the sides with hands/palms shaped in low relief. The figure wears a long, straight garment/tunic that extends to the feet, with vertical grooves and ornamental bands suggested along the body. No clearly legible hieroglyphs, cartouches, or other scripts are visible on the image provided. The surface appears metallic and light-reflective, consistent with the catalogue’s stated material of silver.
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 57.1421 tier-2
- Walters-id 34004 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.